"There are many other examples of intelligent technology gone bad, but more often than not they involve deception rather than physical danger. Malevolent bots, designed by criminals, are now ubiquitous on social media sites and elsewhere online. The mobile dating app Tinder, for example, has been frequently infiltrated by bots posing as real people that attempt to manipulate users into using their webcams or disclosing credit card information. So it’s not a stretch to imagine that untrustworthy bots may soon come to the physical world.

Meanwhile, increasing evidence suggests that we are susceptible to telling our deepest, darkest secrets to anthropomorphic robots whose cute faces may hide exploitative code – children particularly so. So how do we protect ourselves from double-crossing decepticons?"

Boston Dynamics, well known as a developer of robots for the United States military as part of the "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency," has publicised its "next generation" of androids and robots.

"Would you share your home with a robot or work side by side with one? People are starting to do both, which has put the relationship we have with them under the spotlight and exposed both our love and fear of the machines that are increasingly becoming a crucial part of our lives."

A campaign has called for an outright ban on robots developed for sex. Leading academics in robot ethics have warned that their creation will only increase the objectification of women and children, further dehumanising those who are abused for sex.

The warning comes as artificial intelligence approaches a point where it could be used in robots designed solely to satisfy sexual desires. But such robots, campaigners argue, should not exist.

"The development of sex robots and the ideas to support their production show the immense horrors still present in the world of prostitution," read a statement on the Campaign Against Sex Robots website. The authors of the campaign argued that sex robots would further increase the perceived "inferiority of women and children" and continue to justify their use as "sex objects".

The campaign, led by Kathleen Richardson, a senior research fellow in the ethics of robotics at De Montfort University in Leicester and Erik Brilling, an associate senior lecturer in informatics from the University of Skövde in Sweden, hopes to encourage a wider debate around the development of sex robots and their potential implications for society.

The development of "ethical technologies" that reflect the human principles of dignity, mutuality and freedom are critical, the campaign argues. To this end the campaign has called on scientists and roboticists to refuse to help with the development of sex bots, by withholding code, hardware and ideas.

Films such as Ex Machina have raised the issue of human-robot sexual relations

Film 4 / Universal

The first sex dolls imbued with artificial intelligence are due to launch later this year. True Companion, which claims to be developing the "world's first" robot sex doll under the strapline "always turned on and ready to talk or play", said its Roxxxy doll would allow people to "find happiness and fulfilment" without the need for human interaction.

"We are not supplanting the wife or trying to replace a girlfriend," chief executive Douglas Hines told the BBC. "This is a solution for people who are between relationships or someone who has lost a spouse."

Hines said that the physical act of sex would only be a "small part" of the time people spent with the robot. "The majority of time will be spent socialising and interacting," he added. But with little discussion of their ethics, robot sex dolls risk becoming enablers for abusive behaviour.

The Kissinger system has been in development for about eight years, with the latest model designed to plug into a smartphone. By kissing the screen, the movements of a person’s lips can be mirrored in the other machine and that kiss will be given to whoever has his or her mouth against a corresponding machine.

Several companies have shown an interest in the device and Cheok expects to see it hit the market in mid-2015.

Eventually, Cheok believes, “almost every physical thing, every being, every body, will be connected to the internet in some way.’’

The future, he says, will involve the subconscious part of the brain. We already have intimate data on the internet, but we still don’t feel that we can really know somebody online. There’s something missing between the experience of making a Skype call and meeting someone. And this is where transmitting the other senses is so ­important.

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There is already a market for realistic-looking life-sized dolls made from a durable high elastometer silicone material. Female dolls either have fixed or removable vaginas and cost anything from $5,000-$8,000. But they don’t do anything. They are unresponsive.

In time, Levy predicts, it will be quite normal for people to buy robots as companions and lovers. “I believe that loving sex robots will be a great boon to society,” he says. “There are millions of people out there who, for one reason or another, cannot establish good relationships.